Favours
by prongles
Summary: James is struggling to ask Lily to be his girlfriend. The rest of the Marauders offer to help. One-shot.


"Seriously, Prongs, if you don't ask her to be your girlfriend I'll do it for you," Sirius said seriously, folding his arms and giving his best friend a glare.

James scowled. "Don't you dare. And I'll do it in my own time. Stop bothering me about it!"

Remus sighed and said to James, "This is ridiculous. She's not a different species, you guys have been on quite a lot of dates but you can't ask her to be your girlfriend? She's basically it anyway, this will just make it 'official'." He made quote marks with his hands and James let out a disgruntled grunt.

"Why do you care so much?" he asked grumpily. If he wanted to wait, why couldn't he?! Although, truth be told, he was only putting it off because he was nervous. He knew he should do it soon but every time he came close, he choked and chickened out.

Peter let out a groan and Sirius responded, "Because we can tell you want to do it but you're too chicken."

"I'm not a chicken!" James lied. He totally was and he knew it. But he would die before he'd ever admit it to Sirius.

Peter rolled his eyes. "If you don't ask her to be your girlfriend, we'll just make you look stupid until you do."

Sirius perked up like a dog. "That's a BRILLIANT idea, Wormy!" Peter grinned and he turned to James who was looking grim at the thought of his friends trying to make him look stupid. He did that well enough without their help.

"You're going on a date this Saturday, right?" he asked James who glumly nodded. Not that he was glum about his date; he was glum at the thought of his friends following him and Lily around.

Remus smiled slyly. "I think we'll need to borrow your Invisibility Cloak."

James groaned. What had he gotten himself into?

"Remember, Prongsie," Sirius said, far too gleeful, "if you don't ask her out, you'll just look stupider and stupider."

James elbowed his invisible friends but Peter let out a small yelp. "Sorry," he said too loudly, attracting the stares of some people. He smiled awkwardly and then elbowed them again, this time Remus letting out a small grunt.

James didn't bother apologising again but stayed outside the Three Broomsticks waiting for Lily. He could tell she wasn't that fond of this place but she was slowly warming up to it. He ran his fingers through his hair mussing it up before trying to flatten it down again. He couldn't keep still, his foot tapping impatiently and twirling his wand in his thin fingers.

"She's coming!" Peter hissed and James jumped. He stowed his wand in his pocket and prayed that his friends would be kind and leave them alone. He knew that would never happen though. He'd been friends with them for too long.

He saw Lily's bright red hair and smiled. She was smiling and he waved at her with a smile, trying to push his nervousness to the side.

"Hello," she said giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey," he replied trying to remain calm. "Wanna go in?" He jerked his head to the door and she nodded. He held the door open for her and placed a hand at the small of her back, taking her to their usual booth.

He grinned at her as they sat down and he started to play with a loose thread on his sleeve. Lily cocked her head slightly and reached across the table for his hand. He stopped playing with the thread and took it in hers and she asked, "So, are you going to tell me what's wrong or will I have to figure it out myself?"

How could she tell?! She must be a mind reader, he decided. After a long pause he finally said, "There's nothing wrong. I'm just—" He racked his brains for something to say. "—thinking."

Lily had a small grin. "You're just _thinking_?" She let out a little laugh and James scowled playfully.

He threw a napkin at her. "Hey! It happens sometimes," he said with a grin.

She sobered up but still had that cheeky smile. "All right, I'm sorry. But are you sure—" Then suddenly his glass of Butterbeer knocked against the table, spilling it all over his trousers. He jumped up and tried not to swear but pulled his wand out and started cleaning the sticky substance off of him.

He could feel that he was bright red and he wanted to throw the now-empty glass at his friends but he didn't know where they were. He looked around but couldn't see any sign of them.

"What happened?" she asked. Her eyes narrowed and James wanted to gulp. He had to do it soon.

"Sorry," he said a little breathless. "I guess I'm just struggling today." He sat down and Lily gave him a smile. "What were we saying?"

Lily moved a lock of her hair behind her ear. "We weren't saying anything. I was trying to get you to tell me what's going on with you, but I never got very far."

James flushed, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Oh right. I guess I'm just thinking about you?" he said nervously, his fingers twitching against the table top. Lily gave him a small smile of encouragement so he continued, "About how great the past few months have been. I always hoped it would be like this." He grinned and she went pink, lowering her eyes with a big grin. James relaxed thinking she might become distracted and they could continue on their date like normal.

"Smooth. But I don't buy it." James' grin dropped. "Come on, let's go outside and talk. It's too beautiful to be indoors anyway."

He jumped out of his chair, desperate for a distraction. He didn't want Lily to find out about the Marauders and he hoped that if they were walking his friends could maybe lose him. He was about to pull Lily's chair out for her – trying to be a true gentleman and such – but at that very second he felt the Snitch fly out of his pocket. He cursed and chased after it. James generally always caught it but it kept darting just out of his reach.

"Damn you guys," he said under his breath when he elbowed someone in the face. He apologised louder and tried to chase the Snitch. It buzzed out of the pub and he recognised that it was a lost cause. He muttered, "You guys better get that or I will kill you."

He then grabbed Lily's hand and they walked outside together. She then broke away and spun in a circle. James grinned as he stared at her. She was so beautiful. He knew he had to ask her out soon. He was about to say something, nearly completely sure his friends were no longer around but then he stumbled over his feet. He was glad Lily didn't see though as she stopped slightly to stare at something. He was sure that something was his idiotic friends. He heard his Snitch whizzing around so he called out, "Accio!"

He heard it knock over several glasses inside and one extremely rude word. He didn't care as he saw his Snitch safely returning to him.

The Snitch came right next to head but before he could quickly snatch it, it dashed away again and he heard Sirius trying to stifle a laugh.

"All right, you lot," Lily said, making James jump and look at her in shock. "Don't you think you've tormented him enough?" James' mouth dropped open and he heard Sirius snort.

James stayed stubbornly silent, not wanting to succumb to their wishes but then the Snitch knocked into his head – hard. He groaned. "Fine!" he yelled, attracting the stares of the people walking past. "I'll do it!" he snapped angrily at the part of air he was sure his dumb friends were standing. Lily stared at him in shock but he didn't pause, keen to get it over with before his friends seriously hurt him or someone else.

"Lily, will you please be my girlfriend? Because my idiot friends won't leave us alone until you say yes." He hadn't looked at her directly when he was saying the sentence but as soon as he finished it he looked at her nervously. He was kicking his foot on the pavement, waiting for his answer, hoping she'd say yes.

Then, to his utter surprise, Lily leapt forward and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up slightly. He distantly heard a wolf whistle from someone passing but he didn't pay them attention. They broke away and he beamed at her and she grinned.

"Why on earth were you worried? Did you really think I'd say no?" she asked incredulously, laughing slightly. James wanted to respond, 'Yes because you're way too good for me and if anyone told me you were to be my girlfriend I would snort and tell them to get their head checked'.

Instead, he said, "Well, you've never made it easy on me, Lils." He wrapped his arms around her waist and she pulled herself closer to him. He could tell she didn't mean to and that made him so much happier.

She winked at him. "Fair enough. But I'll give you a break this time." James blushed and smiled.

"Thank god," Sirius said loudly. The three took the Cloak off and they had big grins on their faces. James lowered his arms and slowly walked towards them. "We were running out of ideas." James threw a punch and Sirius dodged it, swatting his hand away.

"How'd you know it was us, Lily?" Peter asked curiously.

Lily looked at Remus with a sly grin. "Let's just say if you want the Cloak to work, you should really keep all your limbs underneath it." Remus shrugged sheepishly and James snorted. Clearly, his friends were lost without him. He thought Peter was going to change into Wormtail but they clearly forgot about that plan.

Idiots.

"We had a deal. The longer Potter waited to man up and make it official with you, the stupider we'd make him look," Sirius explained to Lily who let out a small giggle.

James scowled. "Well, mission accomplished."

Lily gave him a sweet smile. "Don't worry about it." She gave him a kiss and James ignored Sirius' shout. When they broke away, she said to James as she ran a hand through his hair, "It just means we'll always remember this." He smiled and she grinned back at him. He was truly lucky to have a girlfriend like Lily Evans.

Sirius said, "See, Potter, we did you a favour!" However, James had put an arm around Lily and they walked away, grinning at each other.

He couldn't believe Lily Evans was his girlfriend. If you had told him last year that his girlfriend was Lily Evans he would have laughed and said, "I wish."

Now it was a reality.

Woah.

This was written for a challenge at the HPFF forums and we had to work with a partner and she basically did the whole setting and dialogue (in Lily's POV) so I have to credit and thank her for this as most of this was her work! :)

Hope you enjoyed it!

- Kayla :)


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